I can barely remember a daytime soap week that had as much breaking news as this one. Here’s a peek into Marlena’s reporting notebook:

Ian Buchanan

Monday

I am stunned that General Hospital (Frank Valentini, executive producer; Ron Carlivati, headwriter) has fired Ian Buchanan (Duke Lavery). It is just so wrong! Ian is … Ian! What a magnificent actor he is, not to mention that he is a soap icon. He and the equally magnificent Finola Hughes (Anna Devane) comprise one of the greatest soap couples of all time. Their story of conflicted love has always been a total winner. The role of Duke was briefly played by a badly miscast Greg Beecroft (Guiding Light, One Life to Live) during a 23-year break Ian took from the show when Duke was believed dead. I .sincerely hope they don’t kill Duke off for good this time! Ian is so valuable to GH and so beloved by the fans.

Tuesday

Today I learned the news that Wally Kurth, who has done double duty recurring on both General Hospital as Ned Ashton and Days of Our Lives as Justin Kiriakis, has been given a contract on Days. (Justin left Salem again just a month ago.) I love Wally the Great and will miss him terribly on GH. Days is very smart to snap up Kurth.

More Tuesday

It’s Daytime Emmy time again. Oy! The nominees were announced today. The awards will be presented April 26th on POP. That it’s back on TV after last year’s online debacle is great!

The nominations were announced on CBS’ The Talk (I’m a View girl myself ). They devoted only the first twenty minutes of the show to rattling off the noms, and it was done in the studio. Couldn’t they at least have done a remote to the announcement ceremonies themselves? Remember the days when all three major networks covered the announcement ceremony live? Doesn’t daytime deserve better?

As you know, Emmy judgment isn’t based on an actor’s overall work, but rather on a reel of scenes from the last year that each actor and show submit to a panel of judges at ATAS, the organization that administers the Daytime Emmys. Great care goes into selecting these scenes; they are chosen by the actors themselves, and naturally they are the best scenes of the year.

So far I have only seen one reel for Best Actress and it left me totally exasperated. It’s well known that the Emmy judges usually select a winner who cries and carries on in the scenes on their reel. On the reel I saw, the actress certainly did cry and carry on from start to finish. We all know hysterics aren’t all there is to soap acting, and not always soap acting at its best. The great weeping and gnashing of teeth scenes alone are not representative of the varied and truly excellent work we see on our screen five days a week.

Much more on the nominations themselves and the Daytime Emmys in this column as Emmy day approaches.

Tony Geary in Luke’s moment of truth (Photo from MichaelFairmanSoaps)

Wednesday

I cried and screamed and carried on myself today during GH’s gala 52nd anniversary show. Incroyable! What a shocker or should I say a roller coaster ride of shocks this episode was. During today’s episode, it was revealed that as a teenager, Luke murdered both his mother and super abusive father. The story was told in Luke’s flashbacks and through sister Pat’s (Dee Wallace) narration. The flashbacks were wonderfully rendered in silvery black and white (the way TV was back then). The day the murders happened in Port Charles coincides with the date of the GH’s premiere, April 1, 1963. The details in the early Spencer story were accurate to 1963 in the most minute ways — sets, costumes, hairdos, even the attitudes of men toward women.

In a sublime touch, all the main characters were played by current GH current cast members amongst those Jason Thompson (Patrick) as Dr. Steve Hardy, originally played by John Beradino, and Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth) as Nurse Jessie Brewer, the role played by Emily McLaughlin. What wonderful performances all gave! I hardly recognized Laura Wright (Carly) as Luke, Bobbie and Pat’s mother Lena. She was just amazing in this episode.

Speaking of amazing, there is only one word for our medium right now, and that is “Tony,” as in Tony Geary. He was genius in this episode, but when isn’t he?

Two Tony scenes that stand out this week literally broke my heart. The first one was set in the hospital room of Luke’s long lost sister Patricia. Luke hadn’t seen her in decades. In this scene he saw her for the first time. The look on Luke’s face at that moment was such a mix of wonder, incredulity and love! Geary embodies natural acting.

In the second, Fluke was holding Luke’s wife Tracy (the always brilliant Jane Elliot) his daughter Lulu (Emme Rylan) and sister Patricia hostage in Pat’s hospital room, pointing a gun at the three. To save their lives Tracy slowly talked Fluke down, reminding him how much he loves his family. The strategy worked: Fluke turned back into Luke in mid conversation. What a relief when he dropped the gun! How harrowing Geary made Luke here! From menace to angel in a few seconds!

As illustrated in this scene, Geary and Elliot continue to be the best acting duo on daytime television today after so many years on the show together.

Many fans are saying this is the best soap episode they’ve ever seen. I think it it’s one of many in our long and distinguished daytime drama history. What do you think? The comments section below awaits.

To commemorate The Bold and the Beautiful’s 28th anniversary last Wednesday, executive producer and headwriter Bradley P. Bell staged a daytime soap cliffhanger that is the shock of the soap century: revealing that Maya Avant (Karla Mosley) is really Myron, a transgender person. She was born a man.

You go, Bradley!

Karla Mosley: Her Maya Avant revealed to be transgender

Maya is a model at Forrester Creations and the live-in love of Rick Forrester (Jacob Young). The couple currently hosts the Forrester Mansion. It was in the living room at the end of last Wednesday’s episode that Maya’s sister Nicole (Reign Edwards) told Maya that she is not her sister but her brother. Wowsa! What a beginning to a storyline! The episode trended on Twitter immediately! B&B had managed to keep this stunning reveal top secret. Miraculously, there had been absolutely no spoilers!

Maya/Myron is not daytime’s first transgender character, contrary to what The Daily Mail (England’s gossipy newspaper/website) reported this week. That honor belongs to Azure C (Carlotta Chang) on The City. And then there’s Zarf /Zoe on All My Children. I loved Wendy Mercury (played by herself) the transgender bartender on One Life to Live. The great and mighty headwriter Claire Labine (Ryan’s Hope, General Hospital) created Wendy in 1997 in collaboration with her sub-writer children Eleanor Mancusi and Matthew Labine.

In real life, Wendy was/is an opera singer who back then acted by day and performed by night at an infamous drag club and restaurant on the Lower East Side of Manhattan called Lucky Chang’s. She is just superb!

Maya/Myron is of course an homage to Myra Breckinridge, the 1968 novel by the late Gore Vidal that became a movie in 1970. Vidal was a noted author, playwright, satirist, raconteur and television personality with a taste for the flamboyantly shocking. His sexually explicit, luridly campy tale of a man who becomes a woman amid the sleazy culture of behind-the-scenes Hollywood was considered high scandal in its day.

Myra/Myron was film’s first transgender person, played in the equally explicit and truly awful movie version (some say the worst film of all time) by Raquel Welch, then hottest thing on the screen. It also co-starred the iconic Mae West (“Come up and see me sometime”) as Letitia Van Allen, a sexually voracious Hollywood agent with a four-poster bed in her office. It was the first movie for a very young and hunky Tom Selleck, before he made his breakthrough soap role on The Young and the Restless as Jed Andrews during that soap’s premiere year, 1973. In the movie, Selleck was billed simply as “Stud.”

Y&R was the first soap to focus on young people. It was co-created by the late legendary Bill Bell and his wife Lee Phillip Bell. They are the parents of Bill Jr, Bradley and Lauralee (Christine/Cricket Williams) and the co-creators of B&B as a spinoff to Y&R in 1987.

Raquel Welch as Myra Breckinridge

Of course Vidal’s Myra/Myron was created to sell the novel and the movie. She was a phenomenon of the late 60s just as the as mores of Hollywood were quickly changing. Old taboos were falling everywhere, and the book and movie were emblematic of a new era of sexual explicitness that would have seemed impossible just a few short years earlier. Myra/Myron, book and movie, brought in audiences by the zillions, just as Vidal planned.

And that’s exactly what Bradley P. Bell and CBS Daytime want Maya as a her/him to do for B&B, which already is the most popular soap opera worldwide. B&B doesn’t need to do this. But they did it. How high will the ratings spike for this week? For B&B, CBS and Bradley Bell, the sky is the limit!

This is not to disparage the subject of transgender identity and the very real issues it poses for many people who want and deserve society’s respect. GLAAD, the leading advocate in the media for gays, lesbians and transgender people, has come forward in support of this ostensibly ground-breaking storyline. Okay, but with all due respect to this worthy organization, this is not really such a groundbreaker for soaps. It will succeed or fail in proportion to how genuinely sensitive and realistic it is. Otherwise, it’s just another stunt.

We’ve made some changes here at marlenadelacroix.com in an effort to upgrade our service to you, our Thinking Fans. We’ve added a search box, all the better to help you locate what we’re had to say in the past about your favorite soaps and their characters, casts and storylines. And we’re added list of links to our fellow soap opera sites and others we think may interest you, a list that is likely to grow. There’s more to come, as this site continues to evolve. As you know, darlings, Marlena has been and always will be all about you, the soap fans and faithful readers loves ever do dearly. It makes my day to get your comments to this column. We’re here to serve you, always!

Isn’t Zeman being her usual timeless self in the Luke/Fluke story? Thirty-nine years in soaps! She was a sensation in her soap premiere role Lana McClain on One Life to Live in 1976, and, after all these sensational years, she’s a soap icon today.

2. Speaking of, how much do we all miss OLTL and my fave soap of all time, All My Children? Viva forever Agnes Nixon, their creator and the greatest writer of all time, along with her mentor Irna Phillips, the mother of daytime soap opera. Miss my Agnes, who is 88 now. She is a mother to us all! Those soaps we miss so sorely were her children, you know! In addition to her four real children and numerous grandchildren.

3. Two four six eight, who do we appreciate? Two time Emmy winner Maura West (Ava Jerome, GH; ex Carly Manning, As the World Turns)! She deserves this year’s and next year’s Emmys for her work as Ava. I like her better than her Carly, and Carly was immortal. Of course Ava, who was given a terminal cancer prognosis by Dr. Silas Clay (Michael Easton) is going to live.

4. Didn’t the ever handsome (those dimples!) and sublimely talented Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos GH, also a Emmy winner) look like an impressionist painter with the beard? So glad he shaved it this week!

5. Who isn’t sick of GH’s amnesiac Jake Doe/Jason Quartermaine? I certainly am! He’s on every day, and stays, and stays, and stays. Even the superb Emmy winner Billy Miller (ex-Billy Abbot, The Young and the Restless) who plays him can’t keep this interesting. At this point, I just don’t care whether or not he is with Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst)!

In many, many years, there hasn’t been a soap controversy of the magnitude of the furor over the year-old“Fluke” storyline on General Hospital. While some loveit (I gave it a rave in two prior columns,but more on that later) many really hate it.Just look at all the negative remarks about the story on Facebook, on soap site message boards, and in the responses to my last two GH columns. (They are “Divine Soaps Plots Make GH Must See TV, Parts 1 and 2,” which ran respectively here on February 1stand 5th.)

Viewers are sounding off that the Fluke storyline is too cartoonish, has many inconsistencies, doesn’t grow from who Luke really is., has gone on way too long, isn’t our beloved GH and on and on and on, a million other complaints. Everyone is talking about the Fluke storyline.I even spent a full two hours last week over brunch discussing the Fluke story with my always brilliantly spoken GH fan friendpjs, who has watched GH since its inception in 1963. The waiter gave us a really quizzical look!

As for me, I’m a bit embarrassed. Marlena believes it is her job as a critic to criticize soaps that are not character-oriented, have inconsistencies, and have characters that act out of character.Despite its problems, I loved the story because of the continuing suspense and Tony Geary’s bravura acting. Because of those strong elements, I was and still am entertained by the Fluke story, and have been able to forgive all the story’s transgressions.But for how much longer will I be so charmed?

For the first time this week, I felttired, no longer having the patience towait for the reveal of who Fluke really is when Luke, behind bars for the setting up the boat explosion (that didn’t happen) declared he was the real Luke Spencer. (Fingerprints were found – supposedly — confirming this.)

Plus, I am really confused. How could theLuke SpencerI’ve watched since 1980 do so manyawfulcriminal things,among them tryingtocontrol people (like Jake and Ava) into killing other people, committingactualmurder himself? And endangering the lives of people the real Luke loves (his closest relatives Bobbie, Lulu and Tracy, not to mention all the other innocent passengers) by having Jake plant the bomb in the boat?Does Luke have DID, a gimmick story most famously used on One Life to Live with the character of Victoria Lord in the 90s?(She exhibited six personalities including that of Viki and Niki, her “split personalities”who were periodically seen earlier on OLTL over the years.) Or, besides DID — if he has it — is there another explanation for who “Luke” really, really is?

I’ve read on message boards and heard rumors that the Fluke story is yet to continue in the next few months with Luke’s past played out, explaining the roots of his possible DID. The reliable ABC Soaps in Depth magazine reported today thattwo actors are being cast to play young Luke and Bobbie and shared that the show is looking for an actress in her late 60s who hashad a hard life. Will she be cast asPatricia Spencer, the sisterwho Bobbieand Luke talked about only once many years ago in GH history prior to the Fluke story and has never been seen before?Was Patricia in her younger years involved in the cause of Luke’s possible DID?

So, chers lecteurs, where is this Fluke/Luke story going?Only those in the GH inner sanctum know for sure. Although I have a few regrets, I’ll still be watching the story as it progresses because, despite everyone’s complaints,I am still intrigued by it Are you?Will you keep watching?

I’ve said some negative things about General Hospital headwriter Ron Carlivati (particularly when he was writing One Life to Live) but in the last few months he has proven he knows well how to write soap opera.As discussed last week in my rave over the “Fluke” storyline, he knows how to interweave plots and has been a master of creating suspense.Let’s examine how Carlivatihas used or is using the element of suspense in other plots.

Sonny, Julian, Ava and Franco were all in jail: Sonny for the murder of A.J., Ava for the murder of Connie, Julian hiding out in jail from Fluke falsely confessing to the murder of Anthony Zaccara, and Franco for the kidnapping of Avery, Ava’s newborn baby. Would they break out?They did and got into a car accident.Will they live or die?Fluke sent Carlos and Johnny to kill them. Will they succeed?Johnny didn’t succeed in shooting Sonny and shot and got shot by Julian.Will Johnny survive his gun shot?Johnny was injured and wandered off.Where was he going?And will he return to the show?

Carlos was sent to shoot Ava and shot her in the arm.She fell off a bridge but lost her grip, at first hanging on a handrail but fell when Sonny tried to save her.Will she be found?Will she live or die?Also, is Maura West, the best actress on the show (and arguably one of the best in daytime history, having played Carly on As the World Turns) coming back or leaving the show, as rumored?I hope she stays because her performances are always excellent and Ava is a fascinating character.

Nathan and Michael stopped a bomb plantedin a party on the Haunted Starby Jake on Fluke’s order just in time before it went off.An escaped Sonny grabbed the bomb from Michael and dove into the water and it went off.Is Sonny alive and will he be found?Will this act of heroism exonerate him for his murder and will he stay out of jail?There’s not much to GHwhen major star Maurice Benard’s master criminal Sonny is yet again behind bars!

AmnesiacJake, who is really Jason but dosen’t know it, realized he is under the mind control of Helena Cassidine, who forced him to hold Sam hostage, but failed in trying to murder her and plantedthe bomb on the Haunted Star.Would he remember doing all this?He did remember Sam stealing a Chinese figurine Jason had given her which was found on Jason’s body.Will Jake get his full memory back and realize he is Jason?Will Sam figure out Jake is Jason, and what will this do to her?How will this affect her new romance with Patrick?

Franco, who had a gun, also escaped the car crash but headed over to Shadybrook mental institutionwhere his mother Heather was about to inject Franco’s friend and lady love Nina with a syringe full of LSD.Can Franco stop Heather and rescue Nina?He did, but for some reason injected himself with the LSD.Will Franco survive his LSD trip?Franco and Nina kissed.Will they have a big romance?

Questions, questions, questions!Finding the answers compels moi to keep tuning in for fun, and not just duty. GH has certainly been divine when it comes to suspense lately!

What’s to write about? Everyone on General Hospital is in jail, or should be. Sonny has finally been arrested for the murder of A.J. Quartermaine. Carly and Duke are there, too, for helping Sonny cover up the killing.Heather is in jail and presumably will be transported back to Ferncliff.Franco and Nina aren’t in jail, but should be for kidnapping Ava’s baby.And so should Ava, for the long ago murder of Connie.

Nashville is everything a daytime soap producer might imagine in his/her wildest dreams. For openers, it’s a superlative job of world-building, capturing as it does with such impeccable authenticity the world of today’s Nashville, Tennessee – a thoroughly modern metropolis of the New South that also occupies a fabled position in our popular culture as the home of our uniquely American country music industry.

It’s not entirely fair, of course, to compare this weekly primetime juggernaut, with its audience of nine million and per episode budget of $4 million, with daytime soap opera’s five-days-per week worlds-without-end marathon. But it’s not the glitz and glamor and the fabulous music that make Nashville so compelling. It’s the series’ old-fashioned heart and soul of family drama – intersecting stories of love gained and lost, striving broken spirits who cry out and sometimes lash out in pain, and ambition both triumphant and failed, all at the confluence of family and fame.

Behind it all is the flow of creativity that all the characters share, the desire to make music that is their own. This becomes a struggle that infuses all the story lines, a battle between artistic honesty and fakery that is not unlike life itself.

Nashville is built around the world of Rayna Jaymes, a storied country superstar whose career is on down the line, as they say, at the point where she needs and wants to take charge. She does so by launching her own record label, the demands of which clash painfully with her other lives, as mother, wife and conflicted lover. Connie Britton plays her so truthfully, we can easily believe there is a real Rayna, right up there with Tammy and Loretta and Reba.

Rayna is divorced from Nashville’s slick mayor Teddy (Eric Close), engaged to fellow country superstar Luke Wheeler (the equally believable Will Chase), yet continually crossing paths with the man who surely will always be the love of her life, the alcoholic fabled guitarist/songwriter Deacon Claybourne, played by Charles Esten, who surely is the most attractive man on television. Rayna and Deacon were lovers long ago and even have a daughter out of wedlock.They have tried to rekindle their love on several occasions, but it’s just not right. I admire greatly that these characters are all truly adults, trying to honor their choices and do the right thing for their families and children. And all without saccharine.

Nashville’s parallel story line follows the fortunes of Juliette Barnes, one super self-centered hellion of a country/pop upstart from hardscrabble roots who launches herself as Rayna’s competition, becomes her nemesis, then her partner, then the object of public scorn. She’s played brilliantly by daytime alum Hayden Panettiere, who grew up on soaps on Guiding Light and One Life to Live.

Panettiere may be the bravest woman ever on television or in film. Rene Zellwegger deserved the kudos she earned for gaining weight for the title role in Bridget Jones Diary, and Panettiere goes her one better. In real life, Panettiere really is pregnant and has gained the usual pounds. Her Juliette is pregnant, too, proudly looking the part without either slimming camera tricks or insulting fat suit. A real woman playing a real woman. How refreshing.

There’s a whole bushel of intersecting secondary stories, each populated by superb acting talent to die for. These include Jonathan Jackson as aspiring songwriter Avery Barkley, father of Juliet’s baby. (You may recognize him from GH, where he grew up playing Lucky Spencer.) Wonderful, too, are Clare Bowen as Deacon’s talented songwriter niece Scarlett, Sam Palladio as her ex Gunnar Scott, one time songwriting partner who belatedly learns he has a six year old son, and Chris Carmack as Will Lexington, a closeted country hunk who has made it big and is terrified he’ll be found out. What unites them is the steady stream of their soul-revealing music.

All of this is the work of Callie Khouri, who brought smart, flawed and therefore true-life women to the big screen in Thelma and Louise, now a classic. There’s nary a misstep in her Nashville, not a single thing I would change, not a moment when I want to look away from the screen. That is remarkable for such a broad and complex canvas. But Nashville doesn’t feel complex. Its storylines flow together like the lyrics of a country story song.

If you haven’t been tuning in – which I doubt – catch up somehow. You’ll be glad you did.

It’s been quite an eventful November sweeps so far. Stories built over the course of a year or more usually reach their apexes if not their conclusions over sweeps months (February, May, November) and writers plot their most dramatic action to stretch over these months.This November’s star plots on The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful and General Hospital varied in quality but mostlyoffered actors who pulled out all the stops and gave their best, sometimes Emmy-worthy performances during the month. Let’s partake of the feast:

The Young and the Restless — This was finally the month that Sharon’s long held secret – that she had switched the DNA results and Summer was really Nick’s biological daughter, not Jack’s as all had believed for the last year — was disclosed. It was Phyllis (Gina Tognoni) who forced Sharon (Sharon Case) to disclose her lie on the very staircase where Phyllis had taken a fall, resulting in a coma that lasted a year. Tognoni (once Kelly on One Life to Live) was particularly forceful here, full of rage and tears, all aimed at Sharon.Also giving a fine and very affectingperformance was Peter Bergman, whose Jack tearfully and shockingly found out that Summer wasn’t his natural daughter after all.

The Bold and the Beautiful — This is the month Eric picked his successor as CEO of Forrester Fashions. His first choice was his son Ridge — until model Maya disclosed at a board meeting that Ridge had been kissing his sister-in-law and design collaborator, Caroline, who is Rick’s wife on the sly.Jacob Young gave a particularly sympathetic and believable performance full of great depth as the betrayed Rick, as did Linsey Godfrey as the shattered Caroline.Thorsten Kaye showed what a bastard normally good guy sly Ridge could be by brushing off responsibility for his amorous action.Rick was finally chosen CEO.

General Hospital — GH took us through several weeks when secrets were disclosed all over the place.Roger Howarth was just delicious as Franco exposed his bride Carly mid-wedding ceremony as a cheat and a liar.Carly had covered up the fact that Sonny killed his adopted son’s natural father A.J.Laura Wright was extremely harrowing as the betrayed Carly, as was the even more betrayed and shocked Michael.Chad Duell has been giving the performance of his GH career in this plot denouementAlso very good has been the always dependableRobin Mattson, whose escaped criminal mental patientHeather got mixed up in the almost wedding and held several characters includingJordan and Sean hostage.But best of all was long time acting couple Finola Hughes and Ian Buchanan, as police chief Anna had to arrest her lover Duke for covering up Sonny’s presence at A.J.’s murder.These two actors always shine together, but were particularly effective and heavenly here.

Eric Braeden as Victor Newman: Still Machiavellian after all these years

For any soap opera, a “love to hate” character is money in the bank.Fascinated by their endless power to manipulate other characters and instigate interesting plots, these diabolical characters are adored by audiences who avidly follow all that they do.

“Love to hate” characters dot soap opera history and frequently have long lives.One of the first “love to hate” females was Lisa on As the World Turns, played by Eileen Fulton. Lisa drove her husband Bob and other ATWT characters crazy for decades. On Another World, the original Rachel, played by Robin Strasser, was a “love to hate” character who evolved into a heroine, subsequently played by Victoria Wyndham. Stasser went on to play another and more famous “love to hate” character, Dorian Lord, on One Life to Live for decades.Another iconic “love to hate” character, All My Children’s Erica Kane, made famous by Susan Lucci, quickly became the heroine of her show and was beloved for four decades as she stirred up trouble for generations of characters in Pine Valley.

“Love to hate” characters are usually played by women, but there have been some notable exceptions.On AMC, James Mitchell’s Palmer Cortlandt caused trouble for his daughter Nina for years.On TheYoung and the Restless, Eric Braeden’s conniving Victor Newman has been the catalyst of many twisted plots for 30 years. And he’s still going strong,mastermindinglots of problems for his children Adam, Nick and Victoria, and causing his wife Nikki to leave him over and over again. (They recently reconciled after Nikki forgave him for hiring a Cassie lookalike to frighten Sharon. But does anyone believe Victor is properly repentant and will change his Machiavellian ways? )

Right now, there are two “love to hate” characters on soaps who are relatively new and fascinating:

Spunky Quinn Fuller (Rena Sofer) came to The Bold and the Beautiful’s Forrester Creations as a jewelry designer along with her illegitimate son Wyatt.Since arriving Quinn will do anything to help Wyatt win over the love of Hope Logan, including threatening and torturing Wyatt’s brother Liam, who is also in love with Hope.This week Quinn even threatened to kill both Wyatt and Hope.Quinn is so delicious as a “love to hate” character, she’s sure to be with us for a long time.

And on General Hospital, Nina Clay, as playedby Michelle Stafford (who originated and played another “love to hate” character Phyllis Summers Newman on The Young and Restless) has turned out to be a real terror since she came to Port Charles to bust up the romance of her husband Silas and Sam Morgan.She has even resorted to faking paralysis to get her husband to feel sorry for her and stay with her. In interviews, Stafford has stated that Nina is a sociopath – great news for connoisseurs of “love to hate” characters. She certainly has a long future ahead as a troublemaker on GH.

This year’s Daytime Emmys – for the first time, streamed liveonline but not televised — they turned out to be relatively painless.Without commercials, the show flowed nicely, and was capably produced. Hostess Kathy Griffin was funny and full of salt and vinegar as always. The absence of television cameras did not discourage the celebrities and glitterati of the daytime world from showing up, including everyone from legendarygame show host Monty Hall to plenty of nominees plus Best Show presenter Donna Mills, who entered to the theme from Knots Landing.

The big winner was The Young and the Restless, which won for Best Show.A win for Best Writing (picked up by Shelly Altman) set the tone for Y&R’s winning night. Amelia Heinle (Victoria) won for Best Supporting Actress.Billy Miller, who had the storyline of the year with his character Billy’s daughter’s death in an automobile accident, won Best Actor.Hunter King (who plays Summer) won for starring in a storyline which centered on the identity of her biological father. A most pleasant win was for Special Episode in which the late Jeanne Cooper, who played Katherine for decades, was honored posthumously. ExecutiveProducer Jill Farren Phelps gave a very gracious acceptance speech. She attempted to give another for Y&R ’s win as Best Show, but was interrupted by Griffin, who was hurriedly trying to close the webcast.

It was a very good year, too, for Days of Our Lives which won Best Younger Actor for Chandler Massey (ex-Will) and Best Supporting Actor for Eric Martsolf (Brady). Martsolf heartily thanked co-star Eileen Davidson, who won for Best Actress.She kiddingly thanked frequent winner and fellow nomineeHeather Tom (Katie, The Bold and the Beautiful) for “sharing” the award.Davidson finally got the award she deserves for creating the iconic daytime character Kristen DiMera.

There were echoes of cancelled soaps: One Life to Live won Best Direction. Venice, an online soap, won for Best Limited Series soap. The statuette was picked up by one of its stars, an emotional Crystal Chappell.

The Red Carpet Show was thorough, interviewing everyone from soap stars to soap bloggers, but marred somewhat by the flat jokes of inexperienced nonsoap hostesses.

But all in all, the Daytime Emmys 2014, the first to be streamed online, weren’t bad at all.As a matter of fact, they deserved to be televised.

The Daytime Emmy nominations for 2014 have been announced. Do you care?After all these years, Marlena still does. So let’s discuss:

Best Actor:Aside from Jason Thompson (Patrick, General Hospital) the other four nominees all come from The Young and the Restless:Peter Bergman (Jack), Doug Davidson (Paul), Christian LeBlanc (Michael) and Billy Miller (ex-Billy.)Miller, who performed with great strength in the storyline in which Billy’s daughter Delia was run over by a car, should be the winner.Oddly enough, Michael Muhney, who so masterfully played guilt-filled Adam, who ran over Delia, was not even nominated.(Muhney has since left the show.)

Best Actress:Eileen Davidson (Kristen, Days of Our Lives) by all accounts had a particularly good year, and she is the favorite in this category.Also nominated from Days was Arianne Zucker (Nicole).Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke, The Bold and the Beautiful), who had her big scenes the year before when Stephanie died, was also nominated.But never underestimate Heather Tom, whose teary Katie on B&B had a stellar year as her character survived her husband Bill’s infidelity with Brooke.Tom has won the statuette five times before.

Best Supporting Actress:Y&R’s Elizabeth Hendrickson (Chloe) and Melissa Claire Egan (Chelsea) had great years as Chloe’s daughter Delia was killed by a drunk driver.Also nominated from Y&Ras the so-so Amelia Heinle (Victoria).Kelly Sullivan, whose Connie was murdered on GH also had a very emotionalyear.But the best of this worthy slate is Jane Elliot (Tracy, GH ), whovirtually steals the show in every scene she’s in, and should be the big winner here.

Best Younger Actress:This category is a toss-up.Nominated are Kristen Alderson (Kiki, GH), Linsey Godfrey (Caroline, B&B), Hunter King (Summer,Y&R), Kim Matula (Hope, B&B) and Kelley Missal (Danielle, One Life to Live).Each is eminently watchable and has much to recommend her.

Best Show:Incredibly, GH, which had a relatively good year, was not even nominated.On the list are the cancelled One Life to Live; Days (which won the Emmy last year) and Y&R. But clearly the winner, à mon avis, should be the excellent B&B, which had a year with virtually no bad storylines.

The Daytime Emmys will be awarded on June 22nd at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.So far, no network has signed up to televise them, which is quite a statement on the state of daytime. They have been televised since 1974—but apparently won’t be this year as of yet.